The Times Standard from Eureka, California • Page 21

20 The Eureka. California Monday. May 23,1977 ro, cuicnoj tiiunuuji i State of Texas residents resent oil ripof by the North (FourtJilnaeertes) By Economist Service President Carter's energy proposals, announced last month, were not well received in Texas. They have struck the Texas oil industry, from the big companies to the Independent man with a drill in the back ot his truck, as being the epitome of everything that is wrong wilh Washington's ideas about and natural, gas: more controls, less incentives to explore and develop, higher taxes and'grcater regulation. Mr.

Carter's desire to tackle the national energy problem head-on and to press for conservation measure has been welcomed; but the bencfil of the higher taxes he has proposed will go to the federal government and not to those who produce the energy or to the state. is hard to find anyone in Texas who does not believe that the state is having and will continue to have its energy resources ripped off by the northern consumer states. The complaint is just and Texas is feeling mighty sore. Although the world price of oil has, since 1973, been around SI3 a barrel. Texas has, courtesy of federal regulation, been getting just S5.25 a barrel for 00 per cent of its production and an average price of under $8 a barrel.

The price for natural gas sold outside the slate has been fixed even more absurdly low: the average price controlled on the interstate marked is about -15 cents per 1,000 cubic geet as against up to S2 on the unregulated, fiee, intra-state. market. Although only 5 per cent of the Texas labor force works in the petroleum industry it remains the backbone of the state's economy. Last year it earned Texas $16 billion. But every bit as important, it provided the state with 21 per cent of its revenue, that Is about $700 million in all (with another $400 million coming from the gasoline tax).

On the health of the oil industry therefore hangs the wealth of the state. The amount of tax collected rises with the price of oil and gas: on oil there is a production tax of 4.6 per cent of its value, on natural gas one of 7.5 per Thus although the OPEC prices, which has. since 1973, risen by S8 a barrel, has only produced a corresponding rise in Texas oil of about S3 a barrel, that rise nonetheless produced a useful fillip to tax revenues. That enabled the state to get by without imposing other taxes that might discourage industry. In the past, few Texas politicians have dared lo propose an increase in taxes on the oil and gas industry.

Quite wrongly they have believed that these taxes would hurt the Industry, not realizing that Texas is competing with the Middle East, rather than with other American producers. Other states, notably Louisiana, have sharply raised their "severance" taxes on oil and gas to levels far above those in Texas. But now even conservatives, including some arch- conservatives in the Texas oil industry itself, are beginning to realize that petroleum taxes should be raised so as to squeeze the Yankee without hurting the local industry. A conservative proposal to institute a refinery tax has been floating in this session of the state legislature. may yet succeed.

Certainly the industry itself should climb down from its illogical and Pavlovian reaction against more state (axes. An old railroad bridge shown again AN OLD railroad bridge and tunnel is exposed as water in Shasta Lake drops from a capacity of to below due to the drought conditions of the north state. The bridge and runnel have been covered since the lake, the largest of the Bureau of Reclamation's Central Valley Project, was filled following completion of construction in 1949. (UPI telephoto) By No surgery for hiatal hernia DR. LAWRENCE E.

LAMB, M.D. DEAR DR. LAMB -About three months ago I developed a pain in the region of the heart and also pains in the right chest similar to pleurisy which I once had. After a thorough examination including X-rays after drinking something and being on a turn table, my doctor told me I do not have any heart trouble but rather a hiatal hernia. He did not suggest an operation but suggested that I try to live with it as long as I was not unusually uncomfortable.

I have been doing this but the pain seems to jump around from one area to another. Today it is on my left side above the heart region. Sometimes it is in the stomach. I have cut down on food consumption which I think helps some and I am eating a bit oftener. I am 83 years old and to think of having an operation is something I don't relish.

If I thought nothing further would develop I would be satisfied to bear the pains as I'm no baby. I wouldn't ihink of taking pain pills as it isn't that bad. From what I have told you would you suggest that I grin and bear it or do you think by regulating my eating habits I could improve it? I have been told that diet has a lot to do with thype of hernia. DEAR READER There is a lot you can do to improve Dear Dr. Lamb your condition.

Most cases of hiatal iiernia do nol require an operation and the symptoms can be controlled by a change in living habits. OUR BOARDING HOUSE 1 am sending you The Health Letter number 4-8, Hiatal Hernia, Esophogeal Reflux, to give you a more complete outline of what you can do for yourself. The problem is caused by improper closure of the top of the stomach where it joins the esophagus (food tube) that is often associated with a hiatal hernia. When the stomach slides through the enlarged hole in the diaphragm the normal closure mechanism with Major Hoople WELL CLAUPE THUMBSCROUGH --WHAT A SURPRISE: THOUGHT YOU 5TAKTEP A NEW BUSINESS IN A MORE METROPOLITAN AREA! WEREN'T YOU SELLING SPECIAL PICE AW.50ME LOSER FEP WILP RUMORS T0 THE D.A. AND I GOT 5HUTTEREP, MAJOR-- NO SENSE Of HUMOR! 1M BACK WITH ATTORNEY CRUMWELL, TOE VOLUNTEER.

PROSECUTOR! HE NEEDS A MAN HE CAN TRUST! S--ZJ stops working properly. In effect your slomach is like a collapsible water bottle with the top off. If you overfill it the acid-digestive juice and the contents in your slomach just spill out the open top, into the lower esoophagus.This causes burning and pain. This may cause the muschles of the seophagus to contract painfully (esophageal spasm I and cause pain similar to heart pain: Those small meals are a good idea. And you should not lie down for at least two hours after eating or drinking anything.

That will give your stomach some time to empty. If you keep the stomach empty there is nothing to spill out the top. Of course you have to eat. If you are overweight, losing weight will decrease the tendency for the stomach to herniate through the hole in the diaphragm. When you lie down you should have your whole trunk elevated.

This is usually accomplished by propping the head of the bed up on blocks or on two strong chairs. Don't just prop yourself up with pillows as that will bend your trunk forward and compress your abdomen. This increases the pressure in the abdomen and squeezes the stomach, aquirting its contentents into the lower esophagus. Don't wear anything tight around your waist. Don't bend over, avoid coffee, cigarettes and alcohol.

These and other management tips are included in The Health Letter that I am sending you. But with such dependence of oU, what would happen to the Texas boom when the fuel runs out? The answer, of course, is that it won't. Predictions of a date arrived at by dividing current production Into known exploitable reserves are absurd. Reserves, it is true, are falling fast; gas reserves are now about 40 per cent below 1967, oil reserves 28 per cent below their peak level in 1951. But an increase in the price of oil would immediately make more 'reserves exploitable and encourage the search offshore.

(Offshore waters usually belong to the federal government but Texas has control over its own waters for "three Spanish leagues," an historical anomalv from the days when the state was an Independent nation.) The amount of oil siphoned off from Texas wells can also always be cut back by the Railroad Commission, the regulating agency, to eke out supplies. In all probability therefore Texas will still be producing substantial supplies of oil and gas for another 50 years. Until then Its refining and petrochemical Industries (upon which the new taxes should be levied) will be increasingly fed, as they already are, with Middle East imports shipped into Houston. The absurd pricing structure ol the past few years has helped neither the exploration of new reserves (although for oil at least these are mostly known) nor efforts to conserve supplies. But the results, paradoxically, have Senate begins work on huge farm bill By JEFFREY MILLS Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -The Senate is beginning work on a huge farm bill that would continue the controversial food stamp program and establish farm price support payments that help determine how much shoppers have to pay for food.

The farm' bill, as sent to the floor by the Senate Agriculture Committee, would cost an average of about $4 billion per year through 1982 in supports for wheat, feed grains, cotton, rice and soybeans. The Senate is expected to begin work on the bill today. Carter has warned that he will veto the measure if it contains more than 52 billion for crop supports, which guarantee prices to farmers and therefore can influence supermarket prices. "We have to decide whether we want to risk a presidential veto on this bill," Sen. Herman Talmadge, D- chairman of the Agriculture Committee, said when the panel completed work on the bill.

Committee-approved legislation in the House would set the support level for the five crops at about $2.3 billion per year beginning Oct. 1. The Hoase bill is expected to come up for floor debate next month. The Senate's farm bill also would extend the controversial food stamp program for two years, through September 1979. But a major modification would allow low income persons to obtain food stamps free.

Currently, must purchase the, food stamps. Under the Senate measure, the Food for Peace program would be extended for five years with increased emphasis on agriculture development. The bill also contains a fiveyear average cost of $427 million for disaster relief, $52 million in peanut supports and $2 million in payments to dairy farmers whose herds are contamined by chemicals or radioactive fallout. "In other congressional action, the House this week is scheduled to consider a bill to extend for one year a deadline for automakers to meet tough new auto exhaust standards. The auto industry has asked for at least a two-year extension on air pollution standards and then softer standards once the extension expires.

the House also is expected to take up again legislation to remove the prohibition on the 2.8 million federal employes participating in partisan politics. The employes now are prohibited from running for office, serving as fund- raisers or managing a partisan campaign. The bill was considered last week but was withdrawn from the House floor after sponsors decided to seek additional time to rally opposition to an amendment they regard as anti-union. Among hearings, the House judiciary crime subcommittee looks into "kid- porn." More than 120 members are sponsoring legislation to clamp down on interstate traffic of pomog- 1 raphy featuring children. The House Ways and Means Committee will continue working on the tax aspects of Carter's energy plan.

Majority Leader Jim Wright, said Carter's proposal for a new energy department may come before the full House. Egan searches for film money TORONTO (AP) "It's got everything the French Connection had but 10 times more," promised former New York policeman Eddie Egan, in town looking for money to finance a new detective thriller. Egan, whose real life police work in a drug-smuggling scheme was portrayed in the movie "The French Connection," says he plans to make three movies in Canada. One film will be about "the people who are responsible for the importation and distribution of narcotics and I'm going to name names," said Egan. Another film will be about organized crime's influence on the police department and a third will be "the story the supply of narcotics coming in from Cuba." The former New Yorker, who now lives in Hollywood, adds: "I can make Toronto look like New York I got McDBnald's, alleyways, massage parlors, gleaming lights, tall buildings, the dismal grey and dirt.

I can make it work here." Fresno man held for murder FRESNO (AP) A 31- yearold Fresno man faces murder charges today in the strangulation-rape of a 17- year-old newspaper girl, sheriff's deputies said. Municipal Court arraignment was scheduled for David McGown, who was booked Saturday for investigation of murder, deputies said. The body of Janet Herstein, an nth grade student, was found near Mendota Dam last Wednesday. Lt. Ken Hogue of the sheriff's department said one of the customers on her newspaper route was McGown, who lived a' few blocks from her home.

The murder was similar to four others, all involving teenaged girls, in the past three years, Hogue said. not been altogether uphappy for Texas. The poor times at home have sent the prospectors farther afied to Mexico, to the Far East and the North Sea. Texas has been forced to take its oil technology to the world. Although the big oil companies (which In the past decade have increasingly moved their headquarters or staff to Houston) have always been International, the Texas wlldcstter, the independent, the man with the rig, has not been until now.

In Houston there is now a center ol technological know-how anxious to thrust its wares on the world. Another advantage has accrued to Texas from America's messy energy policy. The unrealistic price of natural gas fixed by the Federal Power Commission for inter-state trade has made natural gas producers reluctant to sell their gas outside the state or to explore for new reserves at the interstate price, but doubly willing to sell within the state. Thus Texas consumes 60 per cent of the gas it produces a quantity greater than any other state. The promise of plentiful and reliable supplies of energy within Texas has been an added incentive for firms to more to the state even before this last cruel winter threw northern industry into chaos by the widespread suspension of gas supplies.

Throughout that winter which brought ice storms to Dallas and Houston the gas supplies continued alomst without a hitch. The past three months, therefore, have brought a flood of new inquiries from firms seekine a constant and guaranteed supply of energy, almost regardless of its price. (Net: We Rent Moat Anything! H.DIIMSMORE SANDBLASTING Free Estimates 67T VISIT ANGELUS Clockwork MUHK Largest Selection of MUSIC BOXES On the North Coosf Priced From 3 to Antiquo pianos and clocks on display. Bought and sold VISIT THE MECHANICAL MUSIC MUSEUM 420 2nd St. Eureka 445-0131 Here's why Viking makes sewing simpler! more skipped stitches.

loose threads underneath, either! The Viking ension adjusts precisely for perfect, smooth (itching every time. Viking solves problems other machines Viking is the largest-selling free-arm sewing machine In the world I Switch to the stitch of Viking the best machine In the world. Harris Summer Sis. 442-2220 "We service all brands of sewing machines, so we are truly in a position to see which is best Vikinq" CAN MAKE THE DIFFERENCE REGISTER FOR THE SUMMER SESSION NOW BY MAIL No need to Attend General Registration or Wait in line. Registration by moil packets for new students must be received by the Admissions Office no later than June 3, 1977.

Yes. I would like further information on the 1977 Summer Session at College of the Redwoods Name ADDRESS. City State Zip Phone I am interested have questions about Mail to: College of the Redwoods, Eureka, CA 95501.